The mainstream news media have tuned into layoffs in the legal world. The essence of most of the MSM coverage is, “You know things are really bad when lawyers start getting fired.” Thankfully, legal layoffs seem to have subsided somewhat, or at least not been so fast and furious as in months past. We welcome the respite and the chance to do the fun news: law revue contests, bad legal mamas, and gunners gone wild.

This week, The Atlantic spilled some ink for a legal firing of the political variety. Murray Waas has a piece on former Nevada U.S. Attorney Dan Bogden. The U.S. attorney firings are a story of yesteryear — specifically, 2006 — but there are still questions that have not been answered, including the reason why Bogden got the boot.

During his time as a U.S.A., Bogden got rave reviews from superiors at the DOJ. He has never received an adequate explanation for why he got pink slipped, even though the Inspector General devoted a whole chapter of its 358-page report on the firings to Bogden.

As noted by the WSJ Law Blog, the Atlantic article sheds a little light on the firing. Apparently, kids would have helped his job security:

“I’m concerned about Bogden,” [Deputy attorney general Paul McNulty] told [AG AG chief of staff, D. Kyle Sampson] and a few other senior DOJ officials in the room. “… he’s 50, hasn’t had a job in [the] private sector, and what about his family.”

According to Sampson’s account, another senior official corrected McNulty: “He’s a bachelor,” the official said, “He’s single.”

As Sampson recalled to investigators, McNulty responded, “Okay never mind.” McNulty, Sampson said, “then got up and left my office.”

When questioned by investigators, McNulty did not disagree with Sampson’s basic version of events. Having learned that Dan Bogden was a bachelor, McNulty recalled, “I guess I don’t have any objection [anymore] to going forward.”

We didn’t know the detective from the Wire was working for the DOJ. Cool.

The article goes on to reveal that the screwed over fired U.S. attorneys have an informal little social club, holding reunions on a yearly basis. More on how U.S.A.s get wild, after the jump.

Okay, “wild” might be a slight exaggeration.

These reunions are, as one participant told me, a “bohemian affair,” the cuisine often no better than pizza or take-out food—with a congenial atmosphere, in which participants engage in a certain amount of commiseration. At one reunion, the group clustered around a laptop and watched a Saturday Night Live skit depicting Alberto Gonzales evading congressional questioning.

It has also become something of a pastime at these gatherings for the former prosecutors to speculate as to why Bogden was terminated.

Those U.S. attorneys sure do know how to party.

The piece ends on a happy note. There’s talk of Bogden getting his job back as Nevada’s U.S.A. per Senator Harry Reid’s request. But if that happens, what will the U.S.A.’s talk about at their parties?

A U.S. Attorney’s Story [Atlantic]
Can Bachelor and Former U.S. Attorney Dan Bogden Come Home Again? [WSJ Law Blog]
Re-Hiring of Fired U.S. Attorney Could Spell Trouble for Gonzales [True/Slant]